“All windows down, all cushions hot, all sense / Of being in a hurry gone.” One of the finest poems about a train journey, Philip Larkin’s ‘The Whitsun Weddings’, is to be brought to life to mark the 50th anniversary of its publication. Larkin said of his account of a slow journey from Hull to London, during which a number of wedding couples board the train, in a letter in 1959: “I hope it conveys something of the impressiveness of the occasion: it really was an unforgettable experience.” The Whitsun Weddings was published as a collection by Faber & Faber in February 1964, and was made the Poetry Book Society’s spring choice in the same year.

On Friday 6 June Larkin’s train trip is to be transformed into a theatrical experience, when Hull-based theatre company Ensemble52 will bring the poem to life on rail platforms and on a First Hull Trains journey to London King’s Cross, leaving Hull at 12.30pm. At several of the stations – Hull, Brough, Doncaster, Retford and Grantham – brides and grooms will board the train, waved off by family and friends dressed in 1960s-style fashion.

On board each couple will share stories of life and love, marriages and heartbreak from the last 50 years. The stories will last the period of time between stations and be interspersed with other poems from the collection relayed over the Tannoy. The journey will also feature a soundtrack of Larkin’s beloved jazz music. Audiences on board two dedicated carriages will also be able to hear  recordings of Larkin poems by actor Bill Nighy.

The following day will see the unveiling of a Larkin ellipse sculpture at King’s Cross station, at 12.30 pm, on Whit Saturday. The ellipse, carved by Martin Jennings, will display the final lines of ‘The Whitsun Weddings’ and complete a sequence of installations that began in 2010 with Jennings’s statue of Larkin and the associated poetry roundels (2011) and the Larkin bench seat (2012) on Hull Paragon Interchange. Jennings’s statue of Larkin’s friend, Sir John Betjeman, is next door to King's Cross station at St Pancras.